Kalitan, Our Little Alaskan Cousin eBook

“The Russians settled here, finding the fishing
and furs fine things for trade, and driving the Indians,
who would not yield to them, farther and farther inland.
In 1790 the Czar made Alexander Baranoff manager of
the trading company. Baranoff established trading-posts
in various places, and settled at Sitka, where you
can see the ruins of the splendid castle he built.
The Russians also sent missionaries to convert the
Indians to the Greek Church, which is the church of
Russia. The Indians, however, never learned to
care for the Russians, and often were cruelly treated
by them. The Russians, however, tried to do something
for their education, and established several schools.
One as early as 1775, on Kadiak Island, had thirty
pupils, who studied arithmetic, reading, navigation,
and four of the mechanical trades, and this is a better
record than the American purchasers can show, I am
sorry to say.

“One of the recent travellers[6] in Alaska says
that he met in the country ’American citizens
who never in their lives heard a prayer for the President
of the United States, nor of the Fourth of July, nor
the name of the capital of the nation, but who have
been taught to pray for the Emperor of Russia, to
celebrate his birthday, and to commemorate the victories
of ancient Greece.’ In March, 1867, the
Russians sold Alaska to the United States for $7,200,000
in gold. It was bought for a song almost, when
we consider the immense amount of money made for the
government by the seal fisheries, the cod and salmon
industries, and the opening of the gold fields.
The resources of the country are not half-known, and
the government is beginning to see this. That
is one of the reasons they have sent me here, with
the other men, to find out what the earth holds for
those who do not know how to look for its treasures.
Gold is not the best thing the earth produces.
There is land in Alaska little known full of coal
and other useful minerals. Other land is covered
with magnificent timber which could be shipped to all
parts of the world. There are pasture-lands where
stock will fatten like pigs without any other feeding;
there are fertile soils which will raise almost any
crops, and there are intelligent Indians who can be
taught to work and be useful members of society.
I do not mean dragged off to the United States to
learn things they could never use in their home lives,
but who should be educated here to make the best of
their talents in their home surroundings.

[Footnote 6: Dr. Sheldon Jackson, General Agent
of Education in the Territory.]

“That is one crying shame to our government,
that they have neglected the Alaskan citizens.
Forty years have been wasted, but we are beginning
to wake up now, and twenty years more will see the
Indians of Kalitan’s generation industrious
men and women, not only clever hunters and fishermen,
but lumbermen, coopers, furniture makers, farmers,
miners, and stock-raisers.”